All you need to know: Regular sourdough starter vs. stiff vs. liquid (2024)

Hendrik Kleinwächter

Oct 24, 2021

In this post you will learn the key differences between different sourdough starters, having a closer look on a regular starter, stiff sourdough starter and a liquid starter.

Each different sourdough starter type has different properties. Depending on what kind of bread you want to bake one starter might be better than the other. Thispost covers all the information you need to know about the different types.

Water - the key difference

A regular starter is typically at a hydration of 100%. This means you have equal parts of flour and water in your starter. A liquid starter has a hydration of 500% meaning you have 5 times as muchwater as you have flour. A stiff starter (lievito madre) has a hydration of 50% meaning you have half the water compared to your flour amount.

The below table shows the different starter types compared to each other. This assumes you use 100 grams of flour to make a starter. You can of course use less or more depending on how much starter you need.

# Liquid starter Regular starter Stiff starter
Water in gr. 500 100 50-60
Flour in gr. 100 100 100
Hydration in % 500 100 50-60

Now the reason why you might want to choose one over the others are the different fermentation properties. Just by changing the water amount the fermentation will behave completely different. Let me explain…

Your starter’s microorganisms

Sourdough starters contain wild yeast and bacteria. The yeast is creating ethanol and CO2, the bacteria creates lactic acid and acetic acid (also sometimes CO2 and ethanol). You have hom*ofermentative bacteria and heterofermentative bacteria. This is fancy term for bacteria that can change what they eat and what they ultimately produce during the fermentation activity (aka. POOP). CO2 makes your bread fluffy and ethanol induces alcoholic taste. However, that mostly boils during the baking process. The lactic acid creates you dairy notes, the acetic acid vinegary notes.

By adding water to your flour the amylase enzyme is activated. Amylase converts starch into smallermolecules ultimately yielding maltose. The same happens in your mouth if you keep bread in your mouth for long enough.The flour does this as the germination process needs energy. This is what the yeast is feeding on.

So does the lactic and acetic acid bacteria. On top of that they are also digesting the ethanol created by the yeast. Furthermore the lactic and acetic acid bacteria are eating the gluten of your flour. Gluten is a storage protein that’s broken down by water as well into smaller amino acids. This is what the germ needs to sprout too. This is important information for you, because with bacterial fermentation you willlose dough strength over time. This is good and bad. Good because the dough might become more digestible. You don’t feel so bloated after eating, bad, because the CO2 created can no longer be retained inside of your dough. Your dough will not be as fluffy. Ultimately your dough is going to become very sticky. Fun fact, that’s why it’s important to have a slow/long fermentation because it takes some time for the amylase to work the flour. That’s why a good dough shouldn’t be make in 1 hour. Try to aim for at least 8 hours of fermentation.

Now the unique composition of lactic and acetic acid bacteria depends on your starter. Please let your starter sit without feeding for 2 days at room temperature. Does it small like a bottle of vinegar? If it does, then your starter produces a lot of acetic acid. That’s nothing bad, but ultimately it depends on what kind of bread you plan to bake. If you want to make a hearty rye bread, then vinegary notes are great. Do you want to make a soft sandwich or brioche bread? Then I would not like to have vinegary notes. So this all depends on what kind of taste you like.

To suppress the vinegary notes you need to deprive your starter of oxygen. Acetic acid requires oxygen in the whole process to be made. That’s where a liquid starter comes into play. By submerging your flour mixture in water, you are suppressing additional oxygen from entering the fermentation process. Similar to a lake in summer times where the fish sometimes die in case no new oxygen enters. The flour starts to sit near the bottom of your starter. Over time the bacteria that only produces lactic acid will start to dominate and eventually take over. Your starter will mostly start producing dairy notes only. Warning - over time your microorganisms change and you can never go back! I’ve tried to go back to vinegary production with a 100% starter, but I can’t. I really like the flavor this liquid starter adds to your dough, it’s mild and dairy.

It seems though that at a higher hydration your yeast is also not as active.. I tested different starters and I measured how much each of them would inflate a balloon. The liquid starter lost compared to the starter at 100% hydration. Both of them lost to the starter at 50% hydration. I made all of the 3 doughs from the same source starter. So you could directly see the impact after just 1 feeding. Please check out the video, it contains a few additional interesting experiments. The outcome of this video was for me to then use the stiff starter to bake bread. I could confirm that the stiff starter creates very fluffy bread, that’s mild and not high in acidity. On top of that I made great sourdough with the cheapest low gluten flour that I could find. This confirms that the gluten munching bacteria isn’t as present. This is really cool to know, because normally you would want to get a high gluten flour to withstand the long fermentation, but the with the stiff starter that’s not needed. I still don’t fully understand why the yeast prefers the stiff environment. I have also not found literature on the topic yet. If you do find something please share it with me.

Here’s a quick summary of the different starters and their flavor:

# Liquid starter Regular starter Stiff starter
Flavor Dairy Vinegary or dairy, or both Vinegary or dairy, or both but more mild
Microorganisms Favors bacteria Bacteria and yeast Favors yeast

Depending on where your stiff starter is coming from the taste can be either slightly dairy, slightly vinegary or both. So in case you are a chaser of the pure mild dairy flavor consider converting your starter to a liquid starter before.

If you make a starter from fruit water then in many cases you don’t even have strong vinegary notes. This depends a lot on which bacteria you cultivate. My starter has been originally made with rye flour and just after a few days it would really smell very gross. If it does and you prefer milder sourness, then consider the liquid starter.

Liquid starter conversion

  1. Take 10g of your existing starter
  2. Mix with 50g of water and 10g of flour
  3. Next day shake the bottle, extract 10g, add 10g flour again, 50g water
  4. Repeat for another 2-3 days
  5. Please note how the smell of your starter is going to change

Using the liquid starter

Your liquid starter is ready to be used when you gently shake it and see bubbles of air coming to the top of the surface. I recommend to use around 25g of liquid starter (5%) in summer times and 50g (10%) in winter times (calculated for 500g of flour). As the starter is really liquid make sure to use a little less water. I typically subtract the liquid starter amount from the water amount required to make the dough. This then gives me the final water value I should use.

Please try putting a piece of bread in your freezer just to compare the taste the liquid starter adds to your dough. It’s crazy.

Liquid starter maintenance

I give my liquid starter one feeding before it stays good in the fridge for months. You can always dry a bit of your starter. It will take a little while for it to reactivate, but after a few days it’s good as new.

Stiff starter conversion

  1. Take 10g of your existing starter
  2. Feed with 50g of flour and 25g of water
  3. On the next day, take 10g of your stiff starter, feed again with 50g of flour and 25g of water
  4. The starter is very dry and mixing is a pain. I typically knead it on my bench
  5. Please repeat this for another 3 days, it takes time for your microorganisms to adapt

Stiff starter maintenance

After making a dough feed your stiff starter one more time. Then proceed and place it in your fridge. It will stay good for months. The best thing is to feed it 1 more time before baking. But, you could also just be using a little less starter for your next dough (5%). However, you are introducing quite a lot of fermented flour in the main dough, which can cause issues. So unless you know what you are doing, my recommendationis to give your starter one additional feed. I typically do that in the evening over night (10g starter, 50g flour, 25g water) and then in the morning I mix my dough.

Using the stiff starter

  1. The stiff starter is ready when you flip the glas you have over and you see pockets of air in the starter dough
  2. In summer times I use 10% of stiff starter calculated on the flour. That’s 50g for a dough of 500g of flour
  3. In winter times I use 20% of stiff starter calculated on the flour, that would be 100g

A note on autolysis

Some bakers like to mix a portion of the dough in advance. I personally don’t see the sense in it. I like to do a fermentolyse where I mix everything together right away. To slow the fermentationI use a little less starter. The autolysis as far as I can tell helps to the protease and amylase enzyme to do their work. Sometimes if your main dough fermentation is too fast biochemical reactionsdon’t happen fast enough. But to counter that I simply use a little less starter to achieve the same thing with a slower fermentation.

Leftovers

when feeding you will end up with leftover start that you don’t use. Please don’t throw it away. Store it in your fridge and then make some sourdough spice or a delicious bread out of it.

Closing words

I just wanted to quickly write this post down. I will be adding sources for everything asap when I have a bit more time :-). In general I can recommend the following books where many of the aspects are covered. But please also know that your starter is a symbiotic relationship of various microorganisms. This means that it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the research applies to your starter as well. Experimentation at home is required.

  1. Bakery Products Science and Technology. Y.H Hui et al.
  2. Handbook on sourdough biotechnology. Gobbetti et al.
  3. Highly Efficient Gluten Degradation by Lactobacilli and Fungal Proteases during Food Processing: New Perspectives for Celiac Disease. Carlo G. Rizzello et al.

You can also read a lot more detailed information on this topic in my free book “The Sourdough Framework”. If you like the book a small donation is highly appreciated. I made thebook free on purpose. I believe information like this should be accessible to everyone. Thank you.

Frequently asked questions on the topic

What is a stiff sourdough starter?

A stiff sourdough starter contains less water than the average starter. It boosts the yeast activity.

Is stiff starter the same as a lievito madre?

Yes they are almost the same. A lievito madre is typically made from fruits. A stiff starter is a regular starter turned into a low hydration starter.

What is a liquid starter?

A liquid sourdough starter has a very high water amount. For 1 part of flour it typically has 5 parts of water.

How to improve your sourdough starter taste?

You can convert your sourdough starter into a liquid starter to improve its dairy notes. This will eliminate acetic acid bacteria creating the vinegary aroma. You can then convert your starter back to a lower hydration.

How to fix a bad smelling sourdough starter?

If your starter smells like acetone or very vinegary chances are you have a lot of acetic acid bacteria. You can consider turning your starter into a liquid starter to boost dairy notes.

How to boost dairy notes of your sourdough starter?

Convert your sourdough starter into a liquid starter. The anaerobic fermentation will boost hom*ofermentative lactic acid bacteria.

How to make a starter more active?

Consider changing your sourdough starter to a stiff starter. This will greatly boost yeast activity. You can then bake bread with almost every flour.

How to make a sourdough starter double in size?

This is not important because your flour might not have as much gluten. Thus it can not be inflated as much. Rather consider turning your sourdough starter into a stiff starter. This will greatly boost its yeast activity.

Why is a healthy sourdough starter important for bread making?

Fermentation is the key to making great sourdough bread. Your sourdough starter is the basis for this. Your bread dough is nothing different than a gigantic sourdough starter with different hydration.

How to improve a sourdough starter?

Feeding your sourdough starter frequently will boost its activity. You will also have a more preferable yeast to bacteria ratio.

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All you need to know: Regular sourdough starter vs. stiff vs. liquid (2024)

FAQs

Which is better stiff starter or liquid starter? ›

Liquid starters have higher enzymatic activity than stiff ones, which means they can confer greater extensibility to a dough. This makes them the better choice for breads that require extensive manipulation during shaping, like baguettes, bagels, or pizza. Liquid starters are quicker to ferment than stiff ones.

What are the advantages of a stiff sourdough starter? ›

No messy soup to deal with. Additionally, when mixing up a high hydration recipe (like below) the stiff starter does seem to impart more strength to the final dough, giving the bread a bit more rise and making shaping a little easier.

How to convert stiff starter to liquid starter? ›

Want to turn your stiff starter back into a liquid starter? Rip the stiff starter into small pieces and mix it with lukewarm water. The ratio is 3 parts starter to 1 part water, by either weight or volume: e.g., 3/4 cup (6 ounces) stiff starter added to 1/4 cup (2 ounces) water.

How often should I feed a stiff sourdough starter? ›

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

How do I know if my sourdough starter is strong enough? ›

A sourdough starter needs to at least double its volume, but could even triple if it's really active and happy. Ideally, it should be doubling within 4 to 6 hours of feeding - but it can sometimes happen within just 2 hours if it's warm.

Are stiff starters more sour? ›

The thinking is that a stiffer starter promotes aerobic metabolism, thus creating more acetic acid, while a more liquid starter promotes anerobic metabolism which favors the creation of lactic acid. The difference is that acetic acid tastes more sour than lactic acid. That's all well and good.

Should sourdough starter be thick or runny? ›

Does it matter if my starter is thick or thin, you ask? Nope! Thick and thin starters are both full of wild yeasts and bacteria which is what your bread is begging for. The viscosity of your starter is really just a personal preference because thick and thin starters will both make bread.

Is the older the sourdough starter the better? ›

While the age of your starter won't make your bread any better — turns out, only good sourdough practices can do that — it's a link in the long legacy of sourdough, one of the oldest forms of baking that exists. Whether your starter is a week or a decade old, you can become part of that lineage as well.

What makes a good sourdough starter? ›

Active sourdough starter should have bubbles in it and also smell fresh and fruity. If yours seems a little sluggish, just keep it out of the fridge and step up the feeding schedule. Once you feed it every day for a few days to a week, it should show signs of life again.

What if my sourdough starter is too liquid? ›

If your starter is too runny, it maybe that you need to increase the ratio. A ratio of 1:2:2 can work - so you'd double the flour and water. Alternatively, if your starter is very runny, a 1:2:1 ratio could be used. This would mean that for 50g of starter, you'd feed it 100g of flour and 50g of water.

Can I stir my starter? ›

stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.

How do you revive a stiff sourdough starter? ›

How do you reactivate a dry sourdough starter? To reactivate a dry sourdough starter, mix equal parts of the dry starter and lukewarm water by weight, and let it sit in a warm place for 24 hours. After 24 hours, begin the feeding schedule as detailed above.

What are the benefits of a stiff starter? ›

The stiff sourdough starter will improve yeast activity and reduce bacterial activity. If you are a chaser of a very sour bread and have a very strong wheat flour then you can try to play with a liquid sourdough starter. The key difference between all of the starters is how much water is used in the starter.

Can you overfeed your sourdough starter? ›

The colony of wild yeast and bacteria inside your starter jar are fairly resilient, however, like most living things, they can be overfed. When you overfeed a sourdough starter you dilute the natural population of yeast and bacteria, making your sourdough culture weak and inactive.

Is it better to feed sourdough starter early or late? ›

It depends on how you've fed it! If you feed it by carrying over a large percentage of ripe sourdough starter, it will be ready earlier. On the other hand, less carryover means it will take longer to ripen, assuming it's kept at the same temperature.

When to use sweet stiff starter? ›

Overall, for best results, use a sweet stiff starter in any sweet bread recipe or in a savory bread recipe with a stiffer dough that contains a small percentage of sugar.

What is the best texture for sourdough starter? ›

When we send out our dried sourdough starter packets, the instructions say to make it like a thick pancake batter. That is the viscosity we prefer. We recommend doing this with a 100% hydration - remember, that is 50% flour and 50% water.

What is the best hydration for sourdough starter? ›

Typically, sourdough starters are kept at 100% hydration. This means they are fed equal parts water and flour. This is personally what I like to use.

What temperature starter is best? ›

A flavorful starter likes to be kept warm! Ideal temperature is around 78-85 degrees. The fridge is a good way to store your starter if you are not baking regularly, but we recommend that you take the starter out and feed it for 3-5 days on the counter before using it if you like a sweeter-tasting, flavorful bread.

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